Brockville Public Library - Reference Links

Reference Links

Search Engines

Google
A favourite search engine among librarians. You can search images as well as search "pages from Canada".

Metacrawler
Metacrawler makes searching more of the Web easier by returning the best results from these leading engines: Google - Yahoo! - Ask Jeeves - About - LookSmart - Overture - FindWhat

General

How Stuff Works
Have you ever wondered how a car engine works or what a USB port is? This site helps you understand the basics and provides good illustrations. The site can link you to helpful buyers guides if you are considering purchasing something new.

Librarian's Index to the Internet
Searchable, annotated subject directory, focusing more on academic rather than consumer oriented sites. Sites are selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries.

Canadian Information by Subject
Canadian Information by Subject is an information service developed by the National Library of Canada to provide links to information about Canada from Internet resources around the world. The subject arrangement is in the form of a "Subject Tree", based on the structure of the Dewey Decimal Classification system. This service is updated regularly and is constantly developing and expanding. Be sure to check back often to see the latest additions.

Toronto Virtual Reference Library
Toronto Public Library's virtual reference and information service.

Guinness World Records
The place to look for the world record for anything bizarre, this site can be browsed by category via a pull-down menu or searched by keyword.

Refdesk.com
An enormous, searchable collection of links "on three levels : quick, studied and deep." Facts-at-a-Glance has links to ready reference sites with everything from college rankings to a zip code finder. Current News/Weather/Business/Sports includes links to newspapers, magazines, headline news, etc. Refdesk Subject Categories is an alphabetical directory of links by subject. Top Reference Tools links to encyclopedias and other sources of facts. Fun, help and advice sections round off the site.

Ask Jeeves
A plain English question and answer search engine.

Internet Public Library
Links to style guides, dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, as well as a subject directory.

Reference Tools
AllRefer.com has extensive information from trusted sources on over 100,000 articles covered under earth & environment, history, literature & arts, health & medicine, people, philosophy & religion, places, plants & animals, science & technology, social science, law, sports, everyday life, and more. AllRefer Reference is updated frequently.

Consumer Reports
Offers non-partial reports on many products used by the average consumer.

Encyclopedias

Encarta
Search more than 4,500 articles on the world of knowledge--from aardvark to zambia.

Britannica Online
Includes the complete, updated Encyclopedia Britannica, selected articles from more than 70 of the world's top magazines including Newsweek, Discover, and The Economist and an annotated guide to over 125,000 Internet sites.

The Canadian Encyclopedia Online
The full online version of the Canadian Encyclopedia.

1Up Info - Encyclopedia and Reference Resource Browse articles in all areas of topics within Earth & Environment, History, Literature & Arts, Health & Medicine, People, Philosophy & Religion, Places, Plants & Animals, Science & Technology, Social Science, law, Sports, Everyday Life and more. Includes country studies and North America Gazetteer.

Encyclopedia.com
Encyclopedia.com, the Internet's premiere free encyclopedia, provides users with more than 57,000 frequently updated articles from the Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Each article is enhanced with links to newspaper and magazine articles as well as pictures and maps - all provided by HighBeam Research.

Dictionaries/Thesauruses

Alta Vista Translations
The Babel Fish Translation software can translate to or from many languages, just copy and paste text in and then do the same to retrieve the translated text.

Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com is a multi-source dictionary search service produced by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC, a leading provider of language reference products and services on the Internet.

OneLook Directories
Think of this web site as a search engine for words and phrases: If you have a word for which you'd like a definition or translation, they'll quickly shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define or translate that word. If you don't know how to spell the word, they'll help you do that too. No word is too obscure: More than 5 million words in more than 900 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook search engine.

Wordreference
Word Reference can be used as a dictionary as well as a translator.

Roget's II : The New Thesaurus
Containing 35,000 synonyms and over 250,000 cross-references in an easy-to-use format, this thesaurus features succinct word definitions and an innovative hyper linked category index.

Reference : Bartleby.com Quotations
Bartleby.com combines the best of both contemporary and classic quotations collections into a searchable database of over 87,000 entries, the largest of its kind ever compiled.

Yahoo! Quotations
Quotations by category with links to other quotations pages.

Almanacs

Information Please
This site includes the contents of the Information Please Almanacs, their own biography database, "a leading dictionary," and the Columbia Encyclopedia.

Farmer's Almanac
Online version of this well known publication.

World Factbook
Prepared by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the use of government officials. Published annually, by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), this is a handy reference work for basic statistical data on the countries of the world. Maps are also provided.

Atlases/Maps/Geography

Country Profiles
Provides basic information on the countries of the world. Includes profiles facts, flags, maps, economy, geography, climate, social statistics, political system, etc. CIA world factbook is the source for statistic.

National Atlas of Canada
The Atlas of Canada Web site will provide the most interesting, dynamic and comprehensive collection of maps and related information about Canada available anywhere on the Internet, with effective and intuitive tools for users to access them.

MapQuest
Find map, addresses, and directions to places nationwide.

Biographies

Biography.com from A&E
Information and show details from A&E.

Specialized Search Tools

List of Lists
Librarian Gary Price compiles this clearinghouse of the web's numerous lists of information. Many of these lists present information in the form of rankings of different people, organizations, companies, etc.

Public Record Databases
Links to over 5000 databases of public records from around the world. This is a great site for finding vital statistics, old company records, unclaimed bank balances, land registrations, and more.

Directories/Subject Starters

1Up Info - Encyclopedia and Reference Resource
Browse articles in all areas of topics within Earth & Environment, History, Literature & Arts, Health & Medicine, People, Philosophy & Religion, Places, Plants & Animals, Science & Technology, Social Science, law, Sports, Everyday Life and more. Includes country studies and North America Gazetteer.

About.com
Dubbed the "Human Internet" because its stable of 700 guides select and categorize resources by topic. Excellent coverage for small and medium size business plus the usual lifestyle and human-interest resources. Easy to browse and search.

Librarians' Index to the Internet
Resources are selected for their usefulness to the public library user's information needs. A team of 90 volunteer librarians assembles this database of several thousand top-quality resources.

BUBL Link 5:15
This British directory has a great research focus It links to Internet search guides on thousands of topics, with over 11,000 resources presented. A strong UK focus prevails but any quality resource in English can be listed.

Academic Info
Compiled by Mike Maddin, formerly of the University of Washington Library. Academic Info is an independent Internet subject directory which seeks to provide access to college and research level Internet resources.

The Internet Public Library
This was the first "virtual" public library. Librarians and student assistants select and organize web resources into "traditional" library topical areas such as a Reference Centre, a Youth Resources section, a Reading Room, and more. The content is mostly American with some international resources. A collection of Internet subject guides available at the site also offers good starting points for research.

WWW Virtual Library
This is a large and fairly comprehensive list of "top starting point" resources. Each topical Virtual Library is maintained by a volunteer expert, so quality varies widely. Topics range from consumer focused ones (e.g. gardening) to professional ones (chemistry, engineering) and everything in between.